Elementary is so full of BS PC crap I cant bear it.
Sherlock has elements of that but the acting and overall plot transcends all.
CBS has a habit of putting BS PC crap in their shows, some more so than others. I can put up with it IF the plots are good enough but Elementary doesn’t make the grade.
I find that the writers of Sherlock portray him as oddly unaffected by and detached from the modern PC madness all around him in the same way Doyle portrayed his Sherlock being similarly unaffected by the Victorian mores of the day. Doyle’s Watson was “up” on all the various social fads and high society “isms” of his day (and was always trying to “inflict it’ on Holmes as to make him more socially conscious) as is (and does) the Modern Watson. That is why BBC’s Sherlock is so brilliantly done...Doyle really could have written Holmes this way had Doyle lived in our present era.
Elementary takes Holmes in another direction which I’m not necessarily against. The strong acting by the lead Miller saves the show from sinking into banality and quite a few episodes have had some unique quirks in their plots. Lucy Liu is a fine actress and a person of high intelligence. I do think there is an attempt to turn Elementary into more of an “ensemble” cast show, a sort of a “Friends” show laced with murder and mayhem, which ultimately may cause the series to sag and fall apart before reaching its potential. The inner intimate dynamic interplay between Holmes and Watson was always the key of the success of the Holmes stories...and any attempt to dilute that relationship by adding weird regular characters like the female “protoge” “Kitty” character weakens the series. They need to back off on the political “psychobabble” a bit and just concentrate on the murder, theft, and mayhem plots, many of which are actually quite brilliantly conceived. I found myself thinking on a couple of the Elementary episodes that I would have like to see how Cumberbatch or Downey would have approached the plots with their respective Watsons/actors in tow.
I do have to make a nod to Robert Downey’s movie versions of Holmes, especially as to the treatment of Watson’s wife’s character...making her an essential part of the movie. Brilliantly done! Holmes and Watson becomes Holmes and “one flesh coupled Watsons”...the relationship remains essentially two people. The actress displayed a “ oh well I just met Holmes’s naked brother, it’s just another day with Holmes and Watson “ kind of attitude. I hope they do a third movie!